Jan 2023
Fall 2022: Semester In Review
Happy New Year everyone! As we head into 2023, here’s an update on what we’ve been up to this past fall.
Volunteer Training
Our main goal—and challenge—this semester was to return to in-person screenings. This involved an intensive period of recruitment culminating in our largest event of the semester: a general training session with over 120 students in attendance! Volunteers were trained on professionalism and cultural humility, while also learning how to operate our six stations—registration, medical history, blood pressure, BMI, urinalysis, and blood glucose.
Free Kidney Screenings
Following the general training, our volunteers were ready to participate in our four in-person kidney screenings! As we reconnected with our community site partners around Philadelphia, we are thankful to Holy Cross Baptist Church (10/15), the West Philadelphia Senior Community Center (11/05), Masjid Al-Jamia (11/19), and Opportunities Towers (12/03) for supporting our mission to provide free kidney screenings and 1-on-1 physician consultations to populations in need!
Health Education
In addition to providing clinical services, we also aimed to provide educational resources to screening participants. Our Health Education committee created a kidney health poster presentation and collaborated with Penn Appétit to provide kidney-friendly recipes and samples for deviled eggs and zucchini bread! Our community sites found these resources very valuable and we hope to continue providing them at future screenings.
Career Development
We closed off the semester with some career development for our hard-working members by hosting a medical student advice panel. Our six invited Perelman Med students engaged interested pre-med students in conversation and provided advice regarding classes, extracurriculars, the application process, and their path to medicine.
We have more exciting events and collaborations with physicians and med students planned for next semester—along with more screenings, of course!—so keep an eye out! Thank you again to all our physicians, community sites, and volunteers for a fantastic semester!
Sincerely,
PennKDSAP 2022-23 Board
Laura Liu, President
Olivia Ong, Vice President of Clinical Operations & Health Education
Stephanie Yoon, Vice President of Finance
Nikita Patel, Director of Community Outreach
Faith Ryu, Director of Programming & Physician Relations